Gujarat's GDP lower than Bihar: Keshubhai Patel

Ahmedabad, Jul 13: Former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who is known for his strong anti-Narendra Modi sentiments, has said that the state's gross domestic product (GDP) was lower than that of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Pondicherry. Criticising the government on his blog, he quoted statistics from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation department to support his view. He said the reality in Gujarat was different from what the government claimed and the people of the state should know it fast.

Patel said since 2002, Gujarat has seen a considerable rise in the number of families living below the poverty line. According to him, number of such families increased from 23 lakh to nearly 40 lakh in the last 10 years. Seventy per cent of families in Dahod, Narmada and Dang districts were living below the poverty line. On the human development index too, Gujarat was not performing well and was ranked 11th behind Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir, Patel said.

The veteran BJP leader said the state government was only keen to grant tax relief to a few industrialists behind the facade of Vibrant Gujarat Summit. "These summits are only meant to facilitate the industrialists and do nothing to generate employment and development," he said.

The latest criticism of the state government was the second one by Patel within two days. On Wednesday, he had slammed the administration for the high CNG prices, saying the high Value Added Tax structure in the state was forcing people to pay high prices for CNG, in comparison to Delhi, UP and Rajasthan.